Radhika Gupta
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. R. Gupta
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- r.gupta@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-9872-3730
Radhika Gupta is a sociocultural anthropologist. She obtained her DPhil from Oxford University in 2011 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and the Centre for Modern Indian Studies in Goettingen (Germany). With 17 years of experience in academia and 7 years in the field of international development, Radhika’s research interests and expertise are wide-ranging. These include the study of borderlands, states and citizens, anthropology of Islam, heritage, diversity and social inclusion, and environmental humanities. Radhika is the principal investigator for a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant - funded project: Entangled Universals of Transnational Islamic Charity (2024-2029). Her first book, Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir’s Frontier was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. Radhika currently coordinates the Asia Research Cluster at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology.
More information about Radhika Gupta
News
-
Perpetuating Highland Heritages of Bhutan -
ERC Consolidator Grant for Radhika Gupta to study transnational Islamic charitable networks -
Two ERC Consolidator Grants for Leiden researchers -
Seed Grant for De Maaker and Gupta for research on heritage and climate governance -
LUCIS Annual Conference brings Shiʿi studies to the forefront
Publications
Research
My research lies at the intersection of the anthropology of borderlands, transnational Islam and postcolonial politics in South Asia. My first book, Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir’s Frontier (Cambridge University Press) is an ethnography of the affective attachments, political imaginaries and ethical claims-making of Shia Muslims living along the heavily militarised India-Pakistan border. It examines how borderland dwellers negotiate regimes of state security and their geopolitical location in everyday life.
I am currently working on three (smaller) projects: 1) Border curations at the nexus of tourism and the politics of state security 2) Transnational Islamic charitable networks and social welfare 3) Heritage and Climate governance in the Himalayas.
At Leiden University, I have taught courses in the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Curriculum vitae
Education
- DPhil Sociocultural Anthropology (2011), University of Oxford
- MSc Development Studies (2000), London School of Economics and Political Science
- MPhil and M.A Sociology (1999), Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics
Work Experience
- Research Fellow (2013-2017), Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Goettingen University, Germany
- Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2011-2013), Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germant
- Coordinator, Equity and Rights (2004-2007), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal
Assistant professor
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Culturele Antropologie/ Ontw. Sociologie
- Gupta R. (2022), Islam in the Trans-Himalayan ecumene. In: Wouters J.J.P. & Heneise M.T. (Eds.), Routledge handbook of Highland Asia. London: Routledge. 129-138.
- Gupta R. (2022), Review of: Walter A.M. (2022), Intimate Connections: Love and Marriage in Pakistan’s High Mountains. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Contemporary South Asia 30(4): 637-638.
- Gupta R. (2022), Freedom in captivity: negotiations of belonging along Kashmir's frontier. Cambridge, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
- Gupta R. (2021), Ruination and Heritage Making in a South Asian Borderland. In: Winckler B., Khansa E. & Klein K. (Eds.), Thinking through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, Interpretations. Berlin: Kulterverlag Kadmos.
- Gupta R. (2019), Review of: Ahmad A. (2017), Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait. Durham: Duke University Press. Contributions to Indian Sociology 53(2) (341-343).
- Gupta R. (2019), "There Is Never a Peace Time, It Is Just No War Time”: Ambivalent Affective Regimes on an Indian Borderland, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 39(3): 475-489.
- Gupta R., 'A Postcolonial Civic? Shi‘i Philanthropy and the Making and Marking of Urban Space in Mumbai'. Muslim Humanitarianism: Allegra Lab. [blog entry].
- Gupta R., Understanding Kashmir. EASA Network of Ethnographic Theory. [blog entry].
- Gupta R. (2017), Seeking Knowledge from the Cradle to the Grave: Shi'i Networks of Learning in India. In: Jaffrelot C. & Louer L. (Eds.), Pan-Islamic Connections: Transnational Networks Between South Asia and the Gulf. London: Hurst and Co.
- Gupta R. (2016), Review of: Bhan M., Counterinsurgency, Democracy, and the Politics of Identity in India. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (48).
- Gupta R., Rippa A., Rest M., Joniak-Lüthy A., Maertens C., Müller J., Rail L. & Saxer M. (2016) On Roads: A Review Letter. Review of: Harvey P. & Knox H., Roads. An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise. Cultural Anthropology .
- Gupta R. (2015), There Must be Some Way Out of Here: Beyond a Spatial Conception of Muslim Ghettoization in Mumbai?, Ethnography 16(3): 352-270.
- Gupta R. (2014), Poetics and Politics of Borderland Dwelling: Baltis in Kargil, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (10): .
- Gupta R. (2014), Experiments with Khomeini’s Revolution in Kargil: Contemporary Shi‘a Networks between India and West Asia, Modern Asian Studies 48(2): 370-398.
- Gupta R. (2014), Review of: Ricci R., Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Comopolis. Asian Ethnology Review 73(1-2).
- Gupta R. (2013), Allegiance and Alienation: Border dynamics in Kargil. In: Gellner D. (Ed.), Borderland Lives in Northern South Asia. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Gupta R. (2013), Review of: Rethinking Secularism, Calhoun C., Juergensmyer M., Antwerpen J. van. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19(1): 204-205.
- Gupta R. (2012), The Importance of Being Ladakhi in Kargil: Affects and Artifice, Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 32(1-2): .
- Gupta R. (2012), Contemporary Publics and Politics in Ladakh, Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 32(1-2): .
- Gupta R. (2009), Asad Ashura: An Indigenous Cultural Tradition?. In: Bray J. & Ahmad M. (Eds.), Recent Research on Ladakh.
- Mitra K. & Gupta R. (2009), Indigenous Peoples’ forest tenure in India. In: Perera J. (Ed.), Land and Cultural Survival. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
- Tiwari S. & Gupta R. (2008), Changing Currents: An Ethnography of the Traditional Irrigation Practices of Leh. In: Beek M. van & Pirie F. (Eds.), Modern Ladakh. Leiden: Brill.
- Gupta R. (2003), Changing Courses: A Comparative Analysis of Ethnographies of Maritime Communities in South Asia, Maritime Studies 2(2): 21-38.